September 9, 2014 Tavis Smiley, host of eponymous talk shows on both PBS and public radio, has collaborated with biographer David Ritz to create a human, novelistic portrait of Martin Luther King in his final year: Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Final Year. Prior to his appearance at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on September 19, Smiley spoke with Chapter 16 about King’s “darkest hours,” the way the civil-rights leader influenced Smiley’s own life, and what he thinks King would make of the present American landscape.
Read moreA Troubled King
Tavis Smiley talks with Chapter 16 about the final year of MLK’s life